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Show INVENTION OF PAPER. Chlnnineu Mudi It In the First Ceutury of the Clirlntlun lira. Paper was first manufactured by the Chinese In the first century A. D. Up to that time they wroto on thin slips of bamboo, tho Instrument employed being not a pen or brush, but a pointed point-ed tool. Tho books of these ancient days were mode by cutting the bamboo, bam-boo, after removing the bark, Into thin sheets, which wero strung together so as to compose a fairly compact, though clumsy, volume. Later on It was found better to pound the bamboo to a pasto In a mortar together with water, and the resulting substanco was spread upon a flat surface to dry. This, In fact, was the first paper, In the modern acceptance of tho term, though tho Egyptian papyrus, made from a kind of reed that grow along the banks of the Nllo, antedated It by several centuries. After a while the manufacture of this paper was Improved by adding to it silk and other materials. The Tartars borrowed the art, substituting cotton, which was plentiful in their country, and from them the Arabs acquired It, using linen Instead ot cotton. It was In this way that paper-making was firsi brought Into Europe, being Introduced Intro-duced by the Arabs. |